Does This Work? Options

[Clockface]

According to

http://www.gamewinners.com/xbox/Xbox.htm

"Reformat hard drive:
Note: Reformatting the hard drive will delete all of your saved games and soundtracks. Go to "Settings" then "System Info". Then, press Y, Left Analog-stick Up, Left Analog-stick Down, X, A."

Does this work, and does it completely restore an XBox to factory state, such as reinstalling the default dashboard and settings, or does it simply clear the user data from the drive? Not that I need to do it, my XBox has a modchip so I can (and have) use Slayers (or Hexen) to reformat, but if this really works then it would be handy for people with non-modded XBoxes.

I'm not trying it, of course, in case it does work but doesn't give me a "Sure Y/N" chance to abort the operation, as my XBox is set up great and I don't want to have to go through it all again. I always thought it was strange than the stock XBox lacked a defragmenter and a format-and-reinstall-the-official-Dashboard feature since Microsoft's operating systems for the PC always allow this, so why not the XBox since it too has a hard drive.

[Movax]

Pretty sure this just clears audio/save files.

[fallenangle]

^^Would a defragmenter with the standard 8 -10MB HDD have provided any noticeable benefit? Somehow I doubt it and I'd guess MS felt the same. Only when modded. fitted with larger HDDs and so used more like a PC would defragmentation possibly be beneficial. Of course MS didn't intend you to be able to do any of that.

They don't provide a defragmenter for the XB360 either do they?

As for the reinstall MS dash option - again why would they?

How many people actually suffered a MS dash crash? Obviously, as evidenced by the error message system, the possibility was of course considered. But that really wasn't provided so the user could repair the unit themselves,

Early MS dash versions didn't even give you an error source indicator, just a general error message. If there had been a Windows style OS reinstall/repair disc provided the average Joe wouldn't have had a clue whether it needed to be used or not. Simpler for both user and MS to have the whole machine sent back, most likely still under warranty, for them to sort out.

Again, that's just what they did with the XB360 too.